All Hail, the Mighty and Versatile Kale

It’s hard for me to pinpoint a time that I didn’t eat kale. I’ve been eating it for at least the last couple of years. It’s a shame I didn’t discover it sooner, but when I did–oh wow! I got a juicer from my brother for Christmas and one of the first juices I made was a super yummy kale juice. It was delish! I absolutely loved it! It made me want to eat kale all the time and so now I do.

Kale is one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. It’s dubbed as “the queen of greens!” Now that’s what I like to hear! It’s extremely versatile too! One of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in Los Angeles, Veggie Grill, will do all their sandwiches “Kale Style” which means they’ll do the sandwich sans bread on a bed of kale. When I first realized they had this option it blew my mind! It also gave me a ton of inspiration for my own recipes. I love discovering new uses of kale.

In LA it’s easy to get a kale salad or a side of kale at many different restaurants. It’s also readily available at all the grocery store chains. This has definitely made it easy for me to incorporate kale into as many meals as I want. I’ll use kale as a side dish, lightly steamed and seasoned with garlic, red pepper flakes and lemon juice. I’ll top it with stir-fried veggies and shrimp, giving it an Asian flare. I’ve added it into my mushroom soup. I’ll also just make a plain old kale salad, not that anything I make is plain. My fiancé’s personal favorite is to use it as our own base for veggie or turkey burgers. Of course I love this too! It allows us to enjoy a “burger” without having all those extra carbs.

Okay, you got me; I use kale as a substitute for a grain. And you should too. I’ve used spinach as my substitute for a long time, but switching to kale just makes me feel good. It destroyed spinach in every way. I even recently started growing kale on my balcony. That’s right, you can grow it yourself. And once you harvest it, it just keeps growing back over and over again. Amazing!

Oh kale, I love you so! If I could only eat you at all my meals! Some days I do.